UPCOMING EVENTS

Money transfer company Western Union launched a Facebook Messenger bot today that allows people within the United States to transfer money to more than 200 countries around the world.

The bot was announced onstage at F8, Facebook’s annual developer conference taking place April 18-19 in San Jose, California.

In 2016, Western Union was used to move $80 billion around the world.

Facebook Messenger is the latest modern means of payment to come to Western Union. More than 60 percent of all Western Union digital money transfer transactions globally are initiated via a mobile device, a company spokesperson told VentureBeat.

Western Union enters the market two months after its competitor TransferWise launched its Facebook Messenger bot for international money transfers. And RemitRadar, a bot that shares exchange rates from popular money transfer services, has been featured in the bot recommendation area in Messenger.